Natural Limits

"I think I've about figured it out. It's ridiculous, but very you," her quiet contemplation and my observation broken at the same time by the words.

She approached with smooth deliberate steps, every step placed in front of the other. Our eyes locked on each other, her golden on my plain blues. Eventually she came close enough that my nerve broke and I looked away, everywhere in the grove but those eyes that blazed with understanding.

Escape, I need to escape.

Like a rabbit under the jaws of a predator, I froze; my muscles refused to operate under the panic. She scooped my head in her arm and pressed it against her chest, circling her other arm around my back to hold me close to her. Thoughts refused to come as she held me close, my sinuses filled with nothing but her gentle earthy scent.

Her short nails scratched at my scalp and it was like we were right back in the garden, my head on her lap, her voice in my ears. "I'm here now Poppy. Everythings going to be just fine." She soothed me, reaching out to touch my wounded core.

Finally my muscles decided to work, and I jerked, trying to get away, unwilling to show that part of me to anyone, least of all her.

But she refused to let me go, holding me to her until my struggling stopped and I relaxed into her embrace, the tears falling from my chin onto her dark shoulder.

"It's not your fault. You are not to blame for their deaths. It was a war and they knew what they were getting into just the same as you. You are not responsible for the sins of the world and I understand. I understand the weight that places on a person and you don't have to bear it alone. Not now that I'm here."

The damn broke and I sobbed freely into her shoulder. Time passed, and Artemis remained steadfast, continuous and unflinching in her therapeutic and unavoidable affection. Eventually the well ran dry, my tears ended and I was left feeling better, but was ashamed at the weakness I'd revealed to her; she who I should see as my enemy.

"Why are you doing this?" These were the first words I'd spoken in an indeterminate amount of time, each syllable rumbling my disused throat with uncomfortable vibrations.

Artemis stood, each motion smooth and deliberate, before pausing. "You talk in your sleep."

What?!

"And this," she held up a leatherbound journal I was intimately familiar with. "Proved to be a most fascinating read. So at odds with the rumors swirling around my people about you, the Shadowblade." Making a face, she stuck her tongue out with distaste. "Such a pretentious name for such a sweet man." She tossed my journal away. "Those were not the words of the merciless killer that roams through the woods, picking off scouts one by one."

She's been watching me. But what does that mean? And why was she doing it?

My heart lurched and my stomach fell as I thought on what she might have read in that journal. The things I wished for and the atrocities I'd perpetuated. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"If I was that close? Because we're enemies?"

Well... Yeah? I thought, confused by the sarcasm in her voice.

"I've never wanted to kill any single human. That has never been our goal. We needed you to stop those experiments. You were killing our forests, our homes."

What is she talking about?

Artemis observed my confused expression and went ballistic. "You don't know... Those keficts! The greedy bastards. They didn't even tell the soldiers what they were fighting for!"

Finally my blood began to rise. "You invaded our lands! You killed our people! That's reason enough to fight."

She schooled her expression with visible effort. "Your king was meddling with our trees. Human research stumbled upon a way to draw energy from the surroundings, collecting it to be used in a variety of applications. We only stumbled upon it when the outer ring of our forest began to die. See, that energy had to come from somewhere, it was sapping life from the remote areas it was being tested on. We begged the king to stop his foolish pursuit, to stop murdering our homes and livelihood. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. With diplomacy having failed we were left with no other option."

I've never heard of this magic. But if what she's saying is right...

"That... That can't be true."

"Really?" she asked, raising a single eyebrow skeptically. Blank golden-brown eyes stared at me in disbelief.

I thought about what I'd heard of the king, muted discussion passing from disgruntled soldiers in the barracks. The corners of my mouth pulled down and I lost the majority of the fight in my limbs.

Everything I did. All those orders I followed. It was all for greed?

The faith in my country I'd used to justify my actions cracked, the gap allowing the thoughts that haunted my quiet moments to creep into my peripherals. My eyes went wild and I couldn't catch my breath.

Concerned, she dropped to her knees, taking my cheeks in her hand. "Hey. Hey. Look at me." Her irises drew me in, stabilizing me. "There you are. We can't have any of that now," she teased. "Much more important things to do tonight." She wet her bottom lip with her tongue before catching it between her teeth.

"Why this song and dance? You could've killed or fucked me a dozen times by now. What game are you playing."

"The only one that matters," she said with an intensity I'd never seen on her face before. "The matters of the heart. I wish to cleave to you." Her tattoos flashed, golden sparks running along the lines.

"But that's slavery!" I yelled, trying for the first time to truly free myself. The vines cut into my flesh, blood dripping down my arms, some of it flinging around the air in my fear.

"Hogs-cum! That's just propaganda created to vilify us as 'monstrous savages'," she said with air quotations. She placed her hand on my chest and, despite myself, I stilled. My eyes were wild and my breath ragged but no longer did I thrash about in my restraints. "See. The cleaving is trust and obedience. It's obligation and honesty." She leaned in close, licking the tip of my nose with her brilliant pink tongue. "Desire and release," she whispered huskily against my lips.

Parting, the sensitive nerves in my lips ached with the need to taste her. Then I remembered myself, jerking away from her as if stabbed.

"We can't," I said stubbornly.

"Snake-shit!" She disagreed. "Because society says it's wrong? Or because you don't want to?" Her voice gained a sly, seductive edge, oily sex dripping from each syllable.

My jaw clenched and I didn't say a word, not wanting to implicate myself and unwilling to tell her a lie.

"Fuck everyone else." Her finger slid along the edge of my jaw, scratching at the stubble as she tilted my eyes up to meet hers. "All that matters is you and me right now. And I think that you want me."

"You shouldn't," I muttered darkly, the words wrenching straight from the dark place in my soul. "No one should be near me. Everyone who stays near me dies."

"Oh Poppy." Her voice cracked with emotion, primarily pity. "You never deserved what happened to you."

"No, I deserved far worse." My eyes looked into the distance, seeing nothing but my past.

This time when she approached, Artemis fell to her knees before me, looking up at my eyes that were remarkably dry. Her cheek pressed against my chest, right over her heart, which placed her wilted ears up to press into my neck. Surprisingly, it was the sensation of her fur that drew me from my self-destructive thoughts.

So soft. I couldn't stop myself from leaning into it. It's impossibly, unbelievably soft.

Her arms wrapped around my chest, her cheek absorbed the gentle thumps of my beating heart. I said nothing, unwilling to risk shattering the moment. Artemis was the first to broach the silence.

"Do you want to know the best part of this whole affair, Poppy?" She asked, her eyes flashing with mischief as she looked up at me. "Not once through this whole thing have you asked to be released."

My mind raced back thinking.

She's right, I haven't.

"Would it do me any good?" I questioned, suspicious.

"It might. What if I told you that all you had to do is to say no? One word, two little letters, and your free to go. I'll have to find someone else willing to cleave to me, so we can present a unified front to the masses."

My nose wrinkled with disgust at the idea of anyone else touching her like she did me.

She waited, her smile slowly growing.

A part of me wanted to say no, wanted to punish myself for my past misdeeds by denying myself Artemis' presence. My tongue grew too thick in my mouth, the words unable to come.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace," she teased.

"Artemis..." the name tasted like heaven on my lips. "You don't... You deserve something better. Someone better."

"You think to dictate how I should think or feel."

I jerked my head in a broken shake of dissent. "No! No. no," each word quieter than the last. "I'm not the man I once was. I'm..."

"You were a boy when you first asked me out. I was amused by your youth and eagerness. A puppy begging for attention that I amused myself by providing it." She looked at me and I could see her eyes turn cold and haunted. "You are not the only one to have suffered in this war. You're not the only broken one," she murmured through tears. Her breath tickled my neck as she leaned in close, stirring my blood. "You haven't given me an answer yet."

"You haven't asked me a question," I snorted, dark thoughts broken by her proximity.

"Do I need to spell it out for-"

"Yes." My acceptance cut her off mid-phrase, for once at a loss of words.

The glade was silent, the word hanging on the air untouched as I chose her over my misgivings of the rumors about cleaving. Over the self-hatred that burned in my heart. Over my own people. I trusted in my memory of her and the untamed brilliance of her spirit.

"Finally, it's about time. Meet me in this glade today, right now o'clock. Don't be late and dress as you are," she joked, but earnest tears of happiness fell down her face.

"As you wish. Mine eyes shall want for lack of your face."

She chuckled at our byplay.

I smiled uncertainly at her.

This is ridiculous. I barely know her, and she doesn't know me but for some tortured words in a journal. And yet... It's like we're back in that garden, two youths dancing around each other in awkward self-conscious appraisals.

Reaching out she took my face in her hands, pulling me forward to the edge of my seat to capture my lips in a kiss. There was just enough slack in my restraints to allow me to place my hands on her creamy exposed shoulders. She was just as soft as I remembered, the sensation erasing the years between us. Her ears twitched under my touch, rotating around like a windmill turning to face the wind.

"So soft," I admired impulsively.

She giggled, the sound high and bubbly, at odds with her highly cultivated appearance.

"So hard," she teased, running her fingers along the grooves of my abs.

She withdrew, the lack of her touch somehow painful despite the brevity of its presence. Her visage told me that she had no intention of remaining away from me for long. Slipping the bracelets off her wrists, she tied a large, complicated knot using one before threading it through the other. Testing the elasticity a few times, she seemed pleased with the result.

"What are you doing with- Mrghl. Mrrrmmph. Urgh."

The bracelet was actually not all that uncomfortable in my mouth but I looked at her, annoyed by my sudden gagging.

"Hush. You just be your pretty little self. Artemis is gonna take care of everything for you."

Nervous eyes watched the bunny woman as she walked around me, slowly adjusting each of my limbs and their respective restraints until I was spread legged, back on the ground with my hands stretched loosely above my head. The chair was kicked negligently into the forest to never be seen again. From the new lower angle shot, her prodigious thighs seemed positively enormous. Thick masses of femininity that peeked through generously slit sash, the part running up to the top of her round bottom. Said sash was shortly discarded, thrown off her waist to flutter down off to the side. Her ears twitched on her head, her eyes watching me closely. With deliberate slowness, she stepped up between my legs, slowly kneeling, eyes never leaving mine as she leaned down and placed a single kiss on my glans. My hips jerked involuntarily. Neck muscles straining, I fought to keep her in sight while she began to rain kisses on my flaccid cock, slowly stroking the loose clinging skin of its underside.

Rising in an impromptu yoga pose, she arched her back tickling my thighs with her breasts on her way up. Hooded eyes topped a devilish grin as she slowly lowered herself back towards my swelling cock. Taking the tip into her mouth, she alternated delicate suckles and light streams of cool air until it fully hardened. Licking around the now firm spire of flesh, she slathered it with saliva. Encircling it with her hand, she began to slowly pump while she teased the slit of my entrance with the tip of her tongue. Groaning, I let my head drop and took hold of my restraints with my hands, gripping them tightly, trying not to go mad. She let her free hand crawl up my stomach, teasing the dark hairs there before sliding down to massage through my soft curly pubes. Once she'd determined my bread sufficiently buttered, she withdrew, leaving my glistening manhood to cool in the air of the glade. Dirt and grass scratched at my lower back when my hips wiggled with unfulfilled need.

Rising, she stepped forward purposefully over my waist, tucking her chin so she could watch my expression with confident, lustful eyes. The muscles in her legs danced as she lowered herself in a smooth, controlled motion. Like most Bunyips, her legs were especially developed. While they possessed similar musculature and biology to humans, their method of locomotion and sense of balance seemed superhuman, allowing them to bound from limb to limb of their treetop homes with ease. Knees spreading gave me my first glimpse of her pussy, pink flesh with delicate folds. She smirked. My toes flexed with want, desire running unconstrained through my body. Reaching between the firm cheeks of her butt, she aligned my sex with hers. She wiggled my glans through her labia, teasing me for a long moment with sips of her flower without allowing me to sink my teeth into the meat of the meal.

"Mrrgghh orn wrrrth ild!" I complained, drool slipping from the side of my lips and down my chin.

'Who me?' eyes mocked me from below her fluffy wobbling ears. Taking pity, she allowed one knee to touch the ground to give her greater stability while she glacially introduced my cock to her pussy. Easing it in with gentle bounces, her velvet sex gripped tight to mine, adjusting to its welcome guest. She continued until her pubes pressed against mine, her eyes fluttering with satisfactions our skin mashed together. Licking her lips, a quiet 'hup' accompanied her return to powerfully sexual squat, her prodigious thighs rippling with strength. Winking, she began to tease her nipples with sensual rolling pinches from the pads of her fingers, they stood tall and proud on her breasts, pressing into the fabric of her top. My dick was still fully seated in the pool of warmth and gently squeezing pussy. She wiggled from side to side to catch my attention, prompting me to prop my head up from the floor. Having acquired the final piece she was looking for, Artemis was off to the races. Riding me like a woman possessed, she slid her pussy up and down my greased pole like a well handle worked by a thirsty young boy. Every muscle in my body stiffened in response to the ceaseless squatting of her powerful dipping hips. My heels peeled back the grass and dirt into tiny little furrows when they scraped across the ground.

Her sex seemed to clench and quiver around me and she fell to her knees, her thighs and calves pressing into my sides.

"Ohhh's," slipped from her lips, more like exhalations than the actual formation of words. The sounds indications of the pleasure she was taking from me, seemingly unconcerned with the pleasure she was giving me.

She wants this. It's not for me. It's for her.

I was fine with this arrangement, and the mind-wiping bliss swimming through my nervous system, the tension building in my groin.

I'm okay with being a conduit for her pleasure, I'm sure she deserves it. Unlike me.

Sweat slicked my chest, hips beginning to pump, for the first time trying to assist her in our furious fucking.

She stopped me, pressing her hand into my chest and boring into me with her stare. She rewarded me for my compliance by stripping off her top, undoing the toggles that held it in place on the back of the garment.

Holy mother. So beautiful.

Her symbols continued onto her breasts, accentuating their curves, and highlighting her turgid nipples. Flicking one, she hissed, mashing her pelvis into mine while stretching her slender neck to the side. Movements became less of a thrust and more of a grind, her weight comforting above me. The tension built in my gut and I knew I was approaching my limit. Her fingers teased the junction between her flesh and mine, teasing the bundle of nerves that crowned her sex. Observing me carefully, she teased my orgasm from me like an experienced fisherman conjuring a meal from the depth of the river. Making sure the moment was just right before, 'Wham!', she reeled me in. I shuddered beneath her, my seed spilling up into her in spits and spurts, only to overflow and spill out amongst our sweaty conjoined sexes. Finally having seen to me, it only took Artemis three or four pounding thrusts of her hips and constant vibration of her clit to achieve her own release. Her nails scratched down my chest as she found her pleasure.

A thrill of fulfillment slithered up my spine, watching at the shameless beauty of her orgasm.

I don't think I've ever had a hand in creating something so beautiful before.

Breathing hard around my gag, I let my neck sag back to the forest floor. Artemis flopped atop me, her cheek pressing against my chest, my cock softening in her pussy as we recovered.

Eventually she began to move, a small seed of worry growing in my heart that this unexpected oasis I'd found would be naught but a mirage. Goosebumps followed her touch down my arm, a feathery wave that went all the way down to the restraints. Hooking her fingers in the fibrous manacle, she pulled it toward her mouth, a quick clip of her teeth and that appendage was freed. A quick kiss soothed the raw skin of my wrists. She repeated the procedure for the other arm and my ankles, soothing my scrapes like a mother would a small child who'd tripped. Regardless of the ridiculousness, the comforting gestures were still appreciated. She kissed the rubbery material of the gag, slicked with my saliva, before she removed it. Kissing each side of my parted mouth, she undid the knot and returned the bracelets to her wrists, tiny indentations of my teeth still visible. It took me a moment to realize I was finally free to move. Taking the opportunity before she had a chance to flee, I pulled her flush to me, plastering our flesh together.

She didn't object, returning my gesture in kind. I didn't say anything. Didn't know what to say and was too afraid of ruining the moment. Artemis had no such fear, the cleaving having gone much like she'd envisioned. Syllables of her native language vibrated up my shoulder into my ear. Unfamiliar words and phrases felt like declarations of love. I smiled, happy for the first time in a while, content with the sudden turn my life had taken. No longer riddled with the anxiety that'd sat on me since my orders had been placed into my hand in their wax sealed envelope.